Rift hounds
Wings emerged behind Julian as he started flying towards the location. The speed at which Julian can now fly has increased a lot due to constant flying around and doing stunts in his free time.
After flying for like three hours and enjoying the scenery, Julian reached the place of the mission.
The destroyed mines.
The mining site felt like a giant abandoned city with broken buildings all around. Julian looked around the area and found some dead bodies of miners who had become similar to dry husks after getting their mana sucked.
Julian felt a spark on his shoulder from where a blue butterfly emerged and sat there.
"Is that you Kirin ?"
"It's indeed your majestic, almighty Kirin...but in a diffused form.
Currently, my body is not complete so I can only take the form of small insects like a butterfly to appear outside. Keep feeding me forbidden mana through those eyes and you will soon see my majestic form "
'So that's why I don't feel any change after using flame devour…this guy has been taking away the nourishment I was saving for my eyes.'
"Say Kirin, after you have recovered, can you do the spirit dive thing with me? "
"Spirit dive what's that? never heard of it "
"You know when the spirit and the host combine their power to form something greater ?"
"Ah, that? I don't think it's entirely possible for you " Kirin said breaking some of Julian's dreams.
"You and I have different magic attributes so there are three possibilities that might happen if we try to do the spirit dive.
First, there is no change in your powers except the increase in mana as we will be sharing our mana.
Second, you lose the power to use Fire magic temporarily and gain lightning magic which I doubt you will want as you are more experienced with fire magic.
Third and the case that will give a significant power boost is fire and lightning combined to form a completely new magic type. These are all assumptions so you have to wait till I recover my body.
Keeping that aside it will be better if we focused on the current situation first, I sense a large amount of ominous mana from somewhere deep inside the mines.
As soon as Julian dropped near the hole, two small Rift hounds jumped at him from a broken house.
'Their presence is too low. Low enough to somehow dodge my mana sensing '
Before they could touch Julian, a terrifying pressure enveloped but surprisingly they were immune to Julian's mana pressure.
'Traditional method it is then'
Julian dodged the attack and slashed behind his back cutting the two rift hounds apart that just teleported behind him.
The appearance of the rift hounds was similar to wolves with only their bones. The hounds that approached Julian were at the medium stage. There are two types of rift hounds, smaller ones being called Rifthounds, and large ones called Rockford Rifthounds which range from middle-high tier to peak high tier.
"Aye Kiddo, be careful using Flame devour on them. These are not normal creatures….the corrosive power within their mana is nothing I have seen before.
I have seen rift hounds before and these are far from normal " Kirin warned.
"Thanks for the advice. Make sure my mind space is stable and you absorb all the forbidden mana I am going to absorb Kirin "
'Here goes nothing '
[Flame devour ]
The body of the hounds disintegrated and entered his eyes.
Immediately he started to feel intense pain in his eyes and head.
[Hang on their kiddo, this mana trying to eat me up too. No matter what happens don't lose consciousness or you'll die ]
Julian immediately regrated using flame devour on the rift hound. Secre was worried and panicked but there was nothing she could do to ease Julian's pain.
DIEEEE!!!
WHY DON'T YOU DIE TOO!!!
WHY ARE YOU ALIVE!!!!
GIVE ME YOUR SOUL!!
Julian started hearing loud screams from all around him as his vision turned red due to blood. He looked around and found himself among thousands of corpses who had some purple aura leaking out of them.
[Don't look at them…you will go insane
They are souls of the dead who are still attached to this peace of land. You can see them temporarily due to the effect of forbidden and computed mana.
Focus on yourself now ]. Julian took Kirin's advice and focused on stabilizing his mind space.
After ten minutes of suffering from unbearable pain, everything started to become normal.
Julian felt a wave of comfort never felt before. The bleeding of his eyes stopped as a cool feeling enveloped them.
[Your powers are a cheat man…]
'What happened ?'
[A moment ago it felt like the corrupted mana was eating apart me and your mind space but then the image on your eyes appeared in the red sky completely absorbing the mana.
I can feel the forbidden mana lingering in your mind, which I can absorb freely.]
"Seems like normal flame devour will not work on these creatures. I can feel my eyesight get stronger after absorbing the mana from these creatures so let me try that again."
Secre felt like facepalming after hearing Julian.
[You really are a masochist kiddo ]
Julian looked around the area and found three more rift hounds and repeated the process. The pain was considerably less each successive time so that was a good thing.
With nothing else to see in the abandoned place, Julian entered the mine.
The first area was devoid of any minerals or organisms, it was the middle area where Julian encountered three small rift hounds.
So far Julian had seen that Genjustu and mana pressure don't work on them.
'Time for some experiments'
He killed two of them and made the third one scratch his arm.
In the place where the hound scratched, blood flooded nonstop without clotting. Julian cut off the wound and applied the spell phoenix robe which completely healed the area.
"So they have a poison that prevents the blood from clotting and increases the flow of blood which makes the opposite die faster of blood loss."
[And some lingering corrupt mana too but its effect is not that great ]
Although their claws don't hold much power to slice or cut off bones, they are extremely sharp, compensating for the lack of power.
He found some more dead bodies of miners whose condition was similar to the ones in the town. Julian killed all the rift hounds and stored them in his eyes by converting them into forbidden mana.
His eyes seemed to have infinite storage for forbidden mana and kept on absorbing it. From what he understood, the change in his eyes will not get strong immediately after getting in contact with forbidden magic, they need time and constant exposure to forbidden magic. He could use the forbidden mana in his eyes anytime if needed just as Kirin said.
[There is also a chance that mana might leak over time so you will need to create storage for forbidden mana as these are too precious to waste]
Every time he encountered a dead body, he sent them to the surface by creating bird summons.
Julian strolled, looking around everywhere as he never really saw what a mine looked like from inside. At the end of the middle area, Julian found his first Rockfond Rifthound.
This hound was truly worthy of being a high-tier beast. The speed at which it teleported was even better than a spatial mage, unlike the small one this one had the power to crush or cut off limbs.
Just like the last rift hounds, this one too became food for Julian's eyes. There were large chunks of rocks that were similar to the ones Reina asked him to bring all around so Julian started to excavate them and keep them in one place for him to take in one go.
"I hope this is what she promised "
In his was a unique spatial ring that had 100 times larger storage than normal and was immune to spatial fluctuation.
This ring was one of its kind that was found in a dungeon. Reina has given him the ring to collect the rocks for the experiment so he has to keep the ring safely.
He kept walking and storing the stones he found in the storage ring.
As we went deeper, he got his answers for the sudden appearance of her Rift hounds.
A wall with a crack that was releasing a large amount of energy.
'Seems like a dungeon but I can't tell which type of dungeon it is '
Taking out his communicator Julian gave a call to Yami which was picked up by Finral as Yami was busy with something.
Julian told him about the location and told him to seek help if he doesn't come back after 3 days.
"Let's go Secre, Kirin.. on a new dungeon dive"
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